Month / July 2016

Delcon (Richard Gere) is following The Jackal (Bruce Willis) and gets caught between two fast moving trains coming from the opposite directions. (The YouTube link above will take you directly to the scene)

That I grew up in a joint family and had no access to the TV remote in my childhood.

How?

I must have been twenty one or twenty two, no I guess twenty two is correct. Anyway, this day was just like any other day. It’s not that I remember what day it was or how it started, like no clue at all, honestly! It was just another regular boring day that had come up with Sun up there in the sky and being the same boring, procrastinating, lazy myself, I was watching TV.

So, Star Movies was playing this film ‘The Jackal.’ To be honest I started watching the movie because of Bruce Willis and Richard Gere. It by the way is a great movie (Bruce, Richard and Sidney Poitier, a perfectly talented combination of three great actors cast just right against each other).

The movie was approaching its end, must have been another ten more minutes to go before it ended and suddenly came this particular ‘train scene’ ( YouTube link above). And it was déjà vu. Like wait, I have seen this particular scene before, but where? I am not someone who forgets movies and a movie this brilliant? No chance! I had not seen this movie before, period. But then how in the world did I remember this particular train scene? And it was not any regular faint or a blurred memory. I could feel that the ‘train scene’ had been implanted in my brain years ago. Like it had been peacefully resting in my long term memory forever and was, may be waiting for the right moment to just burst out, but how?

Kids from joint families in the nineties rarely got to watch TV on their own. Because, we all had our elders watching their favourite shows, at their particular time slots and kids (like me) only wished that the day was, may be made up of 32 hours. If not this, then all we could do is get some space on the already crowded sofa and watch whatever our elders seemed to watch. Indian middle class has never deemed it important to give children their own choices. I myself was never, ever in my life asked ‘what would you like watch, my dear child?’ I may still die of a stroke if my father or uncle comes and asks me this very question today, because they never will. Till this very day, if it’s us sitting together in front of the television, then the poor television has to play that ‘pathetic-death arousing-boring news’. Why because children do not watch TV. They study or they play. Television was never for us. We had to be at the mercy of our elders to let us watch, whatever they watched.

Hence, this memory is from one of those ‘No TV for you’ days. My uncle was watching this movie on television and I am sure I must have been timidly resting next to him staring at the television screen. Because to be honest, back then existed no subtitles; and understanding them (characters) speak in flawless English was beyond comprehension. <I was kid, don’t judge>

So, this particular ‘two fast trains moving opposite to each other, and a poor guy getting jammed between the two’ got stuck in my mind. It got stuck so well, that I never realised it had been passively living in my memory for so long. Strange are a few memories. Some are funny too! This one’s weird because I have no memory of any other scene from the movie.

Well, may be some say it right, that our brain comprehends only what it wants to comprehend, rest can really go to hell and enjoy their time. So, that’s my first story. Let me know if you got bored reading it because I will try and do better with the next one.

P.S I do have access to the TV remote now in the apartment I rent, but in my own house, yes the big family house, it’s the kids who rule now and my elders today have to watch Shin Chan and Chota Bheem. Karma right?

So, in this Half Marathon blogging challenge with Blog Chatter, I am going to blog about movie scenes those have somehow, anyhow been stuck in my mind. Short anecdotes about what made a particular movie scene stick. Could have been Mom’s call from the kitchen at the very important movie scene, could have been the missed first five minutes of a movie due to traffic, could have been the location, like look I was here (happened with me when I went watching ‘Queen’) or a very distant childhood memory that made that very particular movie scene get glued to the long term memory of my brain.

I couldn’t write a post on the second day of the Marathon because of an exam, hence starting my Movie Memory Marathon from today onward.

Like this:

Some of us like catching them fresh, first day first show; while, some only prefer watching seasoned movies on the telly. Some of us like talking about the movies whereas some of us, (no matter how annoying we may appear) also shamelessly talk in the middle of movies. Then there are people who like collecting movies (Respect). Few of us have their own Harvey Specter and Mike Ross in them, who just don’t forget any movie. These guys simply enjoy throwing movie quotes at us, right? But no matter what category of movie watchers ‘we’ may fall into; we, in all proportions, big or small love movies.

But why exactly do we love movies?

Well, because every movie is a story, but ever wondered if you have a personal story for ‘the’ story? Pause, and think for a moment, what crazy, memorable incident happened with a movie or within a movie? Was it the annoying guy at the PVR seated next to you? Or was that one friend who just, no matter how hard you try, garners attention from the entire hall for his or her loud laugh? Well, happens with me all the time! No kidding, I swear!

It could also be a prank you may have copied from a movie and played it along? Or replicated a movie scene for your own self, well not hinting at the clichéd romantic moments, but it does happen among friends too!

So, in this Half Marathon blogging challenge with Blog Chatter, I am going to blog about movie scenes those have somehow, anyhow been stuck in my mind. Short anecdotes about what made a particular movie scene stick. Could have been Mom’s call from the kitchen at the very important movie scene, could have been the missed first five minutes of a movie due to traffic, could have been the location, like look I was here (happened with me when I went watching ‘Queen’) or a very distant childhood memory that made that very particular movie scene get glued to the long term memory of my brain.

My most advertent try will be to not bore you! And, if by Mother Mary’s grace our movie scenes match! Then voila! Just write it down here! And we shall gladly rejoice over the memories we hit! What say?